Sins of the Assassin: A Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Robert Ferrigno (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 2009

Colossal in concept, dazzlingly plotted, filled with vivid, jaw-dropping violence, Sins of the Assassin confirms Robert Ferrigno as the modern master of the futuristic thriller.

In the second book of Ferrigno's spectacular Assassin Trilogy, Rakkim Epps battles radical fundamentalist forces in a futuristic America, now a divided blood-soaked dystopia. Will he survive? Can America ever be unified again?

The year is 2043. New York and Washington, D.C., have been leveled by nuclear bombs. New Orleans is submerged beneath fifty feet of water and treasure hunters scavenge its watery ruins. The United States no longer exists, and in its place two new nations maintain an uneasy coexistence.

To the west stretches the Islamic Republic, seemingly governed by a moderate president but hollowed from within by the violent, repressive Black Robes, a shadowy fundamentalist group intent on crushing all those who do not follow Allah's path. In this frightening world, freedom is controlled by the state, and non-Muslims are either second-class citizens, hidden underground, exiled, or executed.

To the east and south lies the Christian Bible Belt, itself torn by conflict from warring factions, each claiming to be more righteous than the others. Meanwhile the former United States is being nibbled away at the edges: South Florida, known as "Nuevo Florida," is independent; the Aztlán Empire, formerly Mexico, encroaches from the south; and Canada has laid claim to huge swaths of territory along the United States's former northern border.

What stability exists between the warring empires is threatened when the president of the Islamic Republic discovers that a Bible Belt warlord, known simply as the Colonel, is searching for a superweapon hidden inside a remote mountain decades earlier by the old United States regime. Rakkim Epps, retired shadow warrior, is sent on a perilous mission to infiltrate the Belt and steal or destroy the weapon. Accompanying Rakkim is Leo, a naive nineteen-year-old whose technologically enhanced brain is crucial to their success.Together they sneak through the Belt, a lawless territory where a bloodthirsty, drug-addled militia prepares for the End-Times.

When Rakkim and Leo finally reach the Colonel's mountain, Epps is forced to rely on his shadow warrior's ability to kill any and all who would halt his quest. Opposing him is the Colonel's enforcer, a sadistic, carbon-skinned killer named Gravenholtz, and the Colonel's wife, the alluring, sexually rapacious Baby, who wants -- and gets -- more of everything. Meanwhile, the Old One, the ancient and immensely rich Muslim fanatic who seeks to rule both American nations, plots his attack from the safety of his ocean liner. Rakkim Epps, he realizes, must be stopped, controlled, or killed.

A terrific stand-alone read, Sins of the Assassin is a cinematic feast of action and plot, and verifies Robert Ferrigno's Assassin Trilogy as a monumental imaginative work of suspense.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ferrigno fails to make the most of an intriguing premise in the second installment in his Assassin trilogy (after 2006's Prayers of the Assassin). In 2043, almost 30 years after a series of suitcase nukes destroyed New York City and Washington, D.C., the U.S. is divided into two major regions—the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt. Islam and fundamentalist Christianity have respectively filled the spiritual vacuum caused by the mass destruction and the subsequent imposition of martial law. The underdeveloped plot focuses on the efforts of master killer Rakkim Epps to keep a powerful weapon out of the hands of the Colonel, a leader of the Bible Belt. Apocalyptic thriller fans looking for a thoughtful look at a near future where radical fundamentalism reigns supreme may be disappointed to find, instead, countless scenes of excessive violence. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"White-knuckle suspense." -- Chicago Sun-Times

"Provocative, unpredictable, and nuanced....Sins of the Assassin is terrific -- all killer, no filler." -- The Seattle Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Star; Reprint edition (January 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416537716
• ISBN-13: 978-1416537717
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #498,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in South Florida, a tropical backwater rife with mosquitoes, flying cockroaches and the sweet stink of life. My youth was spent stealing science-fiction paperbacks from the local mini-mart and cutting tunnels through the palmetto thickets behind my house with a machete. Later, I regularly burned down those palmettos for the pleasure of seeing the fire trucks arrive, sirens blaring.

After earning degrees in Philosophy, Film-Making and Creative Writing, I thought that I would be happy as a college professor, writing dense, literary novels which I would assign to my students. I found, however, that being a professor was mostly a matter of going to meetings, and that I hated reading, let alone writing dense, literary novels. Instead, I went back to my first love, poker.

The next five years I gambled full-time, living in a high-crime area populated by starving artists, alcoholics, and drug dealers. I was comfortable there, and became friends with many people who would later populate my novels, the loveable, but dangerous sleazeballs as they have often been described. After a time, I got restless and used some of my winnings to start a punk rock magazine called The Rocket, where I interviewed the Clash, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, etc. The success of The Rocket got me a job as a feature writer for a daily newspaper in Southern California, where I took the adventure-and-new-money beat.

Over the next seven years I flew jets with the Blue Angels, drove Ferraris and went for desert survival training with gun nuts. More importantly, the newspaper taught me to train my eye and ear, to observe, to research, and how to use direct, concise language to create a character, and set a scene. The newspaper was a great gig but I wanted to write novels. I quit my day job.

My first novel, THE HORSE LATITUDES, (1991) was called the fiction debut of the season by Time magazine. It was, however, only May. I have since written seven more novels. My work has been described by the Washington Post as "Quentin Tarantino territory, with drugged-out and sometimes violent people in search of sensory overload, but what makes it all not just bearable, but often compelling, is Ferrigno's scorching wit and his relentless moral sense."

I love writing crime thrillers. At their best they are an honest portrayal of the human heart, within the context of love, humor, ambition, greed and betrayal. Just like life, the good guys are usually tainted, and the bad girls are smarter than anyone. While I can no longer understand a word of my undergraduate thesis on the philosophy of British logical positivist Ludwig Wittgenstein, thanks to researching my novels, I can steal a locked car within thirty seconds, effectively clear a jammed Mac-10 machine gun, and make crystal methadrine from ingredients found in any supermarket. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ferrigno Hits Another Bullseye!, March 12, 2008

By 

Caesar M. Warrington (Lansdowne, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sins of the Assassin: A Novel (Hardcover)

SINS Of The ASSASSIN is the second installment of a planned trilogy (Come on Ferrigno, why are you going to leave us with only three books?) and it's even better than its dazzling predecessor, PRAYERS For The ASSASSIN.

Those of you who aren't familiar with the Assassin saga should understand that by the mid-21st century the world has been turned upside down. Western Europe is an Islamic basket case while America itself has been broken by nuclear attack, civil war and ecological disaster. In addition to the territorial acquisitions of Canada and the encroachment of the ascendent Aztlan Empire of Mexico or breakaway republics like the Mormon Free State and a Cuban dominated Florida, two political configurations now dominate what used to be the United States: the Islamic Republic of America and a loose confederation of the former southern states familiarly called the Bible Belt. Both are second rate powers, one waiting to destroy the other while Russia and China and new economic powerhouses like Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa strip them bare through exploitive trading privileges and concessions.

In this bizarre world of our near future lives Rakkim "Rikki" Epps, a genetically enhanced former "shadow warrior" of the Islamic Republic's elite Fedayeen special forces. Rakkim doesn't have the time or inclination to make sense of the bewildering religious and political forces responsible for the mess in the world...he is too busy fighting them. In PRAYERS we watched Rakkim curtail the maniacal ambitions of the Old One (an ancient Arab billionaire somewhat reminiscent of Hasan-i-Sabah, the 12th century leader of the Ismaili sect of the Assassins), helping to expose him, not Israel, as the one behind the nuclear attacks on Mecca as well as New York and Washington. In this latest installment we see him deep undercover down in the Bible Belt, hoping to infiltrate the army of a Kentucky warlord who is believed to be close to unearthing an old US weapons system, which he plans to sell to the Chinese.

Whereas the original novel showed us the nightmare of the Islamic Republic of America: a place where Disneyland lies in ruins for those to remember the immaturity and wickedness of their forefathers, where Mt. Rushmore has been defaced, where Jews are hunted down, Catholics have been ghettoized and homosexuals hang as putrid ornaments from the Golden Gate Bridge; SINS Of The ASSASSIN gives us a glimpse of a chaotic Bible Belt that seems to have also gone insane. New Orleans has long ago drowned in the perennial hurricanes that lash at the Belt's southern shores. Diseases and plagues infect much of the region. Outside of the capital of Atlanta, central authority is literally a joke, with power being held by warlords, various militias and drug barons. The South has become a place where indentured servitude is common and Waco reenacments draw huge crowds.

Robert Ferrigno put much time and research into his books, he also creates complex characters with depth of personality. You care about Rakkim and want to know more about him, how he ticks, how he will end up at the end of it all. You suspect that his wife Sarah is slowly becoming disillusioned with Islam. You wonder if Rakkim's Catholic friend, the Seattle detective Anthony Colarusso will live to retire, or will his refusal to "know his place" or his resistance to his son's conversion eventually cost him his life. You're glad that Jewish Spider's son, the supergenius Leo, has found a girlfriend. Ferrigno's tale isn't only about Islam vs. Christianity, it's just as much about the people coping in such a situation. Both PRAYERS and SINS kept me mesmerized and looking forward to the next installment. I strongly recommend them to anyone interested in alternative history and future shock literature.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heroin packaged as a book, February 9, 2008

By 

D. Ross "http://directorblue.blogspot.com" (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sins of the Assassin: A Novel (Hardcover)

Seldom does an eagerly anticipated sequel meet the hype. Even less frequently does it exceed the original, especially when the latter received numerous awards and hit all of the bestseller lists. Such an anomaly is Robert Ferrigno's Sins of the Assassins, the second volume in the Assassin Trilogy.

Epic in scope, cinematic in its plotting, startling in its violence and ultimately realistic despite its futuristic setting, Sins features the return of Rakkim Epps in a post-nuclear U.S. In Prayers for the Assassin, Epps uncovered the true backdrop behind a so-called "Zionist" attack on Washington, New York and Mecca. The attacks triggered a second U.S. Civil War that eventually split the country into a moderate Islamic Republic and a Christian-oriented Bible Belt. With help from his long-time friend Sarah, Epps exposed "the Old One" as the instigator of the nuclear attacks. The Old One, bent on establishing a global Islamic empire with North America as its cornerstone, was stopped dead in his tracks by Epps and Sarah but escape to live another day.

In "Sins", another, darker day has arrived. The United States is more fragmented than ever as the Christian Bible Belt is racked by warring factions; the Islamic Republic has become increasingly radicalized as Sharia law spreads; and the Aztlan Empire (Mexico) and Canada are encroaching on the old southern and northern borders.

Worse, word of a legendary super-weapon buried in a remote mountain area -- a highly-classified DoD project in the old U.S. regime -- threatens to unravel the fragile truce that exists between the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt. Epps is tagged for a secret mission by the president of the moderate Islamic Republic to retrieve the weapon. Any hope for a "re-United States" hangs in the balance as a variety of international players -- including China, the modern global superpower -- race to control the weapon.

Epps is one of the Islamic Republic's elite "shadow warriors," a tiny cadre of special operatives groomed for commando activity behind enemy lines and genetically enhanced for night vision, fighting skills and agility. Compounding Epps' troubles, however, he's ordered to bring Leo -- an unathletic, unworldly nineteen year-old scientific genius -- with him on his nerve-wracking mission into the Bible Belt. Leo's job will be to quickly interpret the weapon's technology and to perform other classified tasks to which even Epps is not privy.

Along the way, Epps grapples with his own religious beliefs. As the violence escalates, he becomes convinced that somehow, some way, the spirit of Darwin -- the ultimate assassin controlled by the Old One -- has entered his being. Epps struggles to maintain control over his own schizophrenic existence as he and Leo weave their way through the Bible Belt's fragmented territories of religious cults, militias and corrupt officials.

As Rakkim and Leo wend their way to the mountain and the weapon within, they face not only the combined forces of the Old One, but a formidable militia led by "the Colonel", a military legend in the Bible Belt. Foremost among the Colonel's troops is Gravenholtz, a mechanically enhanced super-soldier capable of unbelievable savagery.

If Hollywood hasn't optioned the Assassin series, it's high time some Porsche-driving, mousse-laden genius arranged a meeting with Ferrigno's representatives.

The only downside of the book? You'll need the literary equivalent of methadone to overcome withdrawal once the story ends. And you'll be marking the calendar for the final chapter of the triad.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Chilling Vision of a Possible Future, February 14, 2008

By 

Patrick A. Hayden (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sins of the Assassin: A Novel (Hardcover)

The second novel in a planned trilogy, "Sins of the Assasin" picks up three years after the end of the previous novel, "Prayers for the Assasin". That novel painted a future in which a civil war has torn the USA apart in the Isalmic Republic of the North and the "Bible Belt" of the South. Rakkim Epps, a former special forces "Shadow Warrior" for the Islamic Republic and hero of the first novel, is living in hiding with his wife, Sarah, and their son. The Old One, a brilliant, ruthless billionaire with aims on establishing a worldwide claiphate and who almost took over the Republic, has escaped after his part in the events that led to teh Civil War are exposed. On a cruise ship in the Pacific he plots to take over both the Islamic Republic and the Bible Belt, again trying to use a reunited Islamic America to establish a global caliphate. And in the Bible Belt, a charismatic leader known as "the Colonel" has stumbled upon a secret from the old USA which could upset the fragile peace between the two American nations and plunge the world into chaos.

Ferrigno's first novel in this series was fantastic, painting his shattered Islamic Republic of America is small strokes, with the glimpses of the changes forming a larger picture. One of the most interesting parts of the novel was the idea of the "Bible Belt", the loose union of states that pretty much comprise the old Confederate States. They are only mentioned and not visited in the first book, which focused on the theocratic Islamic Republic that was trying to balance religian and Sharia law with some freedom for it's citizens. Here, the Bible Belt. their culture, their govenrnment, their religion and their people are all thrust to the forefront, and with those same small touches, Ferrigno paints a portrait of a ruined American south, ruined by global warming, corrupption, religious fervor and international meddling.

Rakkim is sent into the Belt on a top-secret mission to stop the Colonel from discovering A secret weapon of some kind that the old USA hid at the bottom of an old mine. He takes with him a 19-year old genius who can analyze and nuetralize the weapon. His journey takes him from Texas to Georgia and Ferrigno presents us with a polar opposite of the Islamic Republic. In the Belt, law & order hardly exist at all, as local warlords intimidate the weak national government. It's basically what would have happened if the South had won the first Civil War, really, with a distrust of centralized power and a fierce Christianity rule. It's as frightening a place as the Islamic Republic, but for different reasons, and Rakkim and Leo have expectations shattered and form strange alliances as they move towards their target, while the Old One continues his plan.

The central story here is Rakkim's. He is different than in the first book, and still haunted by the climax of that novel. He is at turns incredibly kind and ruthlessly brutal, and this dichatomy is being to wear at his soul. Rakkim is struggling with his faith, and the strange things he sees along his journey make that struggle harder.

Leo, the 19 year old genius, is also well realized. He starts off as a know-it-all brat, but as he sees the world as it really is, he adapts and finds courage in himself. He's sort of a foil for Rakkim, and as he and Rakkim find the worst in humanity in the Belt, they also find the best.

There are some big twsist in this story which I will not give away. Events occur back home in Seattle, the Capital of the Islamic Republic, that will bring about tremendous change to whoever can manipulate the events. Suffice it to say, I can't wait for the next novel in the series, as a epic ending is the offering.